To the Editor of the "Nonmt-Cina Day News"
Sm—I shall be grateful for a further generous share of your columns in which to reply to Min. A. bp C, Sowsnny's Interesting questions and reiterated fears concerning pro~ pheey. Exhoustive answers are, of course, beyond the scope of a letter, but Twill endeavour to point the way, and the source from which answers may, be extracted according the diligence and sincerity of the Firslly, how do T distinguish what eohsider true and Feliable mater to which due regard should given? 'The answer is easy to put In words, but not easy to execute, namely, to submit It to the highest court of appeal, presumably in the same way that' a solentist would consult the highest available authority i any particular, branch. "What saith the Scriptures" is the Christion's rule of faith, or should be. The test Is not met by the mere quotation of a single verse in sup~ port of any "particular contention. for it Is well-known among Bible students that "a verse may be found for almost anything," but rather, a diligent comparison of seripiure: with scripture, and agreement with general principles, This is so. with AMI scriptural study, but especially with the prophetical branch. T do} not infor that one verse isnot of suffctent authority to rest upon, but thab our understanding of It may be insumeient.
It may well be objected here, that this can only be carried out by those who have made a long study of the Prophetic Scriptures. How may a beginner quickly arrive at a concise conception of what the Bible teaches concerning the future? As an Initiated observer of the heavens would have difficulty in tracing the outlines of the rear constellations, 80 the beginner in. prophetic study may be bewildered by. the galaxy of scriptures which vary in clarity Tike the magnitude of the stars (both wrought by a Divine hand). Your correspondent would no doubt, very: readily recommend some handy. guide or reliable authority to assist the amateur, astronomer: ikkewi (though T-donot claim to be an authority) T would gladly advise any enquirer, privately, a to reliable guides to the understanding of 1 prophetic and other portions of Got Word.
Secondly, the Sovercigmty of God and the free will of man are reconciliable, not in the mind of man, but inthe All-wise direction of affairs whereby God, who worketh 'aM things after the counsel of His own will, brings rebellious man into, His schemes to unwittingly work out "that will, 'This is clearly {Mlusteated in the Pentecostal sermon of Peter, in imperishable words "Him, (Fesus' of Nazareth) being. delivered (for our offences) by the determinate counsel of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crueltied and slain." (Acts 2.28.) In Acts 34 the free choice of the nation is again emphasized "Ye denied the Holy One and Just and desired a. murderer to be. granted unto you." Murdorers we still our sorrow. This great subject. of God's sovereignty and man's froe-will is treated by the master theologan. of all time in Romans, chapters and 10.
Thirdly, the case of Nineveh's suspended judgment is not the only one where God's judgments have waited upon His merey. Indeed it ig true of every generation that "It of the Lord's mercies that we are nol consumed, because His compassions fall' not," (Lamentations 32). Were it otherwise, this pro-sent system of things would surely be rolled up and put away, lock, stock and Warrel! Even s0, a future generation of Ninevites profited not by the example of their forbears, and the long withheld judgment fell by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar about 606 B.C, us foretold by a later prophet, Nehuin. The principle upon which God's dealings with nations is based is: stated in Jeremiah 187-10; Ido not quote for sake of brevity. It Is because God has fore known that the world which rejected and ruelfied His Son, will one day, per~ haps sooner than we think, accept and worship the Anti-Christ and his companion, described in Revelation 13, that judgments, widespread and unprecedented, are' plainly declared to characterize the days. that im+ mediately precede the return of His Appointed "King, who shall reign over the whole' orth, not from London, Berlin, or Rome, but from Zion.
In quoting the case of Nineveh, 1 wonder if your correspondent noticed it was an illustration of a prophetic message accomplishing exactly the EDITOR (continued)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.